{"title":"Social neuropsychology of epilepsy in the digital age: A narrative review on challenges and opportunities","authors":"Marcel Eicher , Rebecca Johannessen , Hennric Jokeit","doi":"10.1016/j.yebeh.2025.110336","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background and objectives</h3><div>Social cognition (e.g., theory of mind and emotion recognition) is frequently impaired in people with epilepsy (PWE) and plays a critical role in social functioning. The impact of the digital revolution on the social neuropsychology of PWE remains underexplored, while clinical neuropsychology has been slow to incorporate technological advancements. This study aims to (a) evaluate the impact of digital communication on social cognition and functioning in PWE, and (b) explore the potential of digital tools to enhance their assessment.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Given the limited and fragmented nature of the available research, a non-systematic, exploratory, narrative approach was adopted. Literature relevant to the interplay of digital communication, social cognition, and social functioning in PWE was synthesized to identify key areas for future research.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Digital communication differs from face-to-face interaction at phenomenological and neural levels; however, research on its effects in PWE remains scarce. Traditional social cognition assessments suffer from low ecological validity. Technological innovations, involving second-person paradigms and dynamic multimodal assessments, address these limitations. Digital biomarkers enable high-frequency, longitudinal data collection of intra-individual variability.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Digital tools offer the opportunity to improve the assessment of social cognition and functioning in PWE, especially regarding ecological validity, by enabling real-world, interactive, dynamic, and multimodal paradigms. Digital social cognitive proxies (e.g., markers of interactional synchrony) may help capture social cognition and functioning in highly dynamic disease trajectories in PWE more accurately. The interplay between social cognition, social functioning, and digital communication in PWE offers research opportunities into their complex and dynamic relationships.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11847,"journal":{"name":"Epilepsy & Behavior","volume":"166 ","pages":"Article 110336"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Epilepsy & Behavior","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1525505025000757","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/3/10 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background and objectives
Social cognition (e.g., theory of mind and emotion recognition) is frequently impaired in people with epilepsy (PWE) and plays a critical role in social functioning. The impact of the digital revolution on the social neuropsychology of PWE remains underexplored, while clinical neuropsychology has been slow to incorporate technological advancements. This study aims to (a) evaluate the impact of digital communication on social cognition and functioning in PWE, and (b) explore the potential of digital tools to enhance their assessment.
Methods
Given the limited and fragmented nature of the available research, a non-systematic, exploratory, narrative approach was adopted. Literature relevant to the interplay of digital communication, social cognition, and social functioning in PWE was synthesized to identify key areas for future research.
Results
Digital communication differs from face-to-face interaction at phenomenological and neural levels; however, research on its effects in PWE remains scarce. Traditional social cognition assessments suffer from low ecological validity. Technological innovations, involving second-person paradigms and dynamic multimodal assessments, address these limitations. Digital biomarkers enable high-frequency, longitudinal data collection of intra-individual variability.
Conclusion
Digital tools offer the opportunity to improve the assessment of social cognition and functioning in PWE, especially regarding ecological validity, by enabling real-world, interactive, dynamic, and multimodal paradigms. Digital social cognitive proxies (e.g., markers of interactional synchrony) may help capture social cognition and functioning in highly dynamic disease trajectories in PWE more accurately. The interplay between social cognition, social functioning, and digital communication in PWE offers research opportunities into their complex and dynamic relationships.
期刊介绍：
Epilepsy & Behavior is the fastest-growing international journal uniquely devoted to the rapid dissemination of the most current information available on the behavioral aspects of seizures and epilepsy.
Epilepsy & Behavior presents original peer-reviewed articles based on laboratory and clinical research. Topics are drawn from a variety of fields, including clinical neurology, neurosurgery, neuropsychiatry, neuropsychology, neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, and neuroimaging.
From September 2012 Epilepsy & Behavior stopped accepting Case Reports for publication in the journal. From this date authors who submit to Epilepsy & Behavior will be offered a transfer or asked to resubmit their Case Reports to its new sister journal, Epilepsy & Behavior Case Reports.
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